(NaturalNews) An Illinois District Court judge has decided that a lawsuit filed against the state's prison system for serving excessive amounts of soy in prisoner meals will move forward. Honorable Judge Harold Baker from the central district of Illinois agrees that the case itself, represented by the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAP), has validity, and that forcing high amounts of soy on prisoners in place of real meat, cheese, and other products could constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."

According to WAP, soy began replacing other foods in the Illinois prison system back in 2002 when Rod Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois. Prison inmates suddenly became inundated at that time with "meat" that was mixed with up to 70 percent soy protein product, and soy cheese, which quietly replaced real dairy cheese. Even the system's baked goods began to be reformulated with high amounts of soy flour and soy protein.

The absurd amount of soy used in the Illinois prison system became so high that many prison inmates began to report severe health problems. WAP says it first started hearing from suffering inmates back in 2007 when many of them were reporting serious stomach and digestive tract pains, for instance, as well as heart palpitations, constipation alternating with serious diarrhea, hypothyroidism, thyroid disease, and chronic infections, among other things.

The Illinois case aligns with a similar class action lawsuit recently filed in Florida against the Florida Department of Corrections. There, inmates reported many of the same health problems, alleging that the system has been negligent in addressing the health problems caused by soy. When that case was first filed, the system removed many of the more obvious forms of soy from prison food, but continues to hide it in other foods today (http://www.naturalnews.com/034139_soy_products_prison_system.html).

While suffering prison inmates will not get much sympathy from the general public, the two cases represent a much more significant issue that affects millions of innocent Americans every single day -- the widespread use of soy, most of which has been genetically modified (GM), and is clearly linked to causing some very serious health problems (http://www.naturalnews.com/GM_soy.html).

While they may not be consuming GM soy in the same high quantities that prisoners are, millions of American schoolchildren, for instance, are subjected to lunchroom foods that are laden with GM soy. So if these two prisoner cases are successful, they will set a precedent for millions of others to potentially seek damages as well, which will hopefully make its way up the "food chain" to perpetrators like Monsanto that are responsible for producing GM soy.